Creating Restorative Learning Experiences Online Teaching, training, and gathering online has become a global norm since 2020. Restorative practitioners have risen to the challenge to shift restorative justice processes, trainings, and classes to virtual platforms, a change that many worried would dilute the restorative experience. How can people build relationships with genuine empathy and trust when they are not in a shared physical space? How can an online platform become an environment for people to take risks and practice new skills without the interpersonal support available when meeting face to face? This book provides instructions for experiential games and activities that are intentionally designed for online learning spaces. It builds upon the core concepts of restorative pedagogy introduced in The Little Book of Restorative Teaching Tools (2020) to guide trainers and facilitators to overcome perceived limitations of virtual training and lean into the tools and possibilities that are unique to online spaces to create meaningful, engaging restorative learning environments. This guide is a valuable resource for anyone seeking to build community and foster development of restorative justice knowledge and skills via online platforms. The games and activities included support building relationships, introducing the restorative justice philosophy, practicing key skills, and understanding and addressing structural and racial injustices. More resources are available at restorativeteachingtools.com.

Engaging Practices for Integrating Restorative Justice Principles in Group Settings As restorative practices spread around the world, scholars and practitioners have begun to ask very important questions: How should restorative practices be taught? What educational structures and methods are in alignment with restorative values and principles? This book introduces games as an effective and dynamic tool to teach restorative justice practices. Grounded in an understanding of restorative pedagogy and experiential learning strategies, the games included in this book provide a way for learners to experience and more deeply understand restorative practices while building relationships and improving skills. Chapters cover topics such as: Introduction to restorative pedagogy and experiential learning How a restorative learning community can be built and strengthened through the use of games and activities How to design games and activities for teaching restorative practices How to design, deliver, and debrief an activity-based learning experience In-depth instructions for games and activities for building relationships, understanding the restorative philosophy, and developing skills in practice An ideal handbook for educators, restorative justice program directors and trainers, consultants, community group leaders, and anyone else whose work draws people together to resolve disagreements or address harm, this book will serve as a catalyst for greater creativity and philosophical alignment in the teaching of restorative practices across contexts.

In this valuable resource, experts share deep knowledge including practical “how-to” and preventive trouble-shooting tips. Instructors will learn about course design and development, instructional methods for online teaching, and student engagement and community building techniques. The book contains successful teaching strategies, guidance for facilitating interactions and responding to diversity, and assessments, as well as future directions for online learning. With many field-tested examples and practice assignments, and with voices from students, teachers, and experts, this book arms instructors and administrators with the tools they need to teach effective and empowering online courses. This one-stop resource addresses all of the core elements of online teaching in terms that are universally applicable to any content area and at any instructional level. “A rare book in education: one that is not only highly useful but also intellectually coherent and based on robusta>, transferable principles of learning and teaching. All educators—in online environments and in brick-and-mortar schools—will find this an invaluable resource.” —From the Foreword by Grant Wiggins “We now know we can get increased participation with online tools to make thinking more visible and switch the traditional delivery of instruction to personalize learning. While it is inevitable that online learning will become an important skill for everyone, the ideas, concepts, strategies, design elements, and tools in the book by Thormann and Zimmerman can also be applied to blended learning.” —Alan November, Senior Partner and Founder, November Learning “The authors of this book have created an excellent resource for anyone interested in becoming an online instructor or improving his or her skills in online teaching. The authors share a wealth of step-by-step activities, examples of assignments and teaching strategies that will guide both novice and experienced teachers as they expand their skills into the online realm. Even as a ‘veteran’ online instructor the book provided me with new ideas to try in my next online class.” —Sam Gladstein, Coordinator, Edmonds eLearning Program at Edmonds School District, WA “Cheers to Thormann and Zimmerman for providing a must-read for online teaching. This clear and practical guide takes the instructor from design to implementation of online courses. The authors remove the anxiety about online teaching for those thinking about on-screen instruction, and provide new thinking and examples for those already immersed in it. It is a great guide for those entering the field and a superb resource for those actively engaged in it.” —Anthony J. Bent, Chairman, Global Studies-21st Century Skills Committee of the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents Book Features: The building blocks necessary to create a successful online course. The know-how of long-time online instructors. Models for Skype conferencing with groups of students. Templates for course building, including sample assignments, activities, assessments, and emails. Detailed treatment of diversity in the online environment Joan Thormann is professor in the division of Technology in Education at Lesley University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. She edits a column on technology and special needs for Learning and Leading with Technology. Isa Kaftal Zimmerman is the principal of IKZ Advisors in Boston, Massachusetts, an educational consulting firm serving educators and stakeholders in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields.

How do we address trauma, interrupt cycles of violence, and build resilience in a turbulent world of endless wars, nationalism, othering, climate crisis, racism, pandemics, and terrorism? This fully updated edition offers a practical framework, processes, and useful insights. The traumas of our world go beyond individual or one-time events. They are collective, ongoing, and the legacy of historical injustices. How do we stay awake rather than numbing or responding violently? How do we cultivate individual and collective courage and resilience? This Little Book provides a justice-and-conflict-informed community approach to addressing trauma in nonviolent, neurobiologically sound ways that interrupt cycles of violence and meet basic human needs for justice and security. In these pages, you’ll find the core framework and tools of the internationally acclaimed Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience (STAR) program developed at Eastern Mennonite University’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding in response to 9/11. A startlingly helpful approach.

Restorative justice represents “a paradigm shift in the way Americans conceptualize and administer punishment,” says author Maisha T. Winn, from a focus on crime to a focus on harm, including the needs of both those who were harmed and those who caused it. Her book, Justice on Both Sides, provides an urgently needed, comprehensive account of the value of restorative justice and how contemporary schools can implement effective practices to address inequalities associated with race, class, and gender. Winn, a restorative justice practitioner and scholar, draws on her extensive experience as a coach to school leaders and teachers to show how indispensable restorative justice is in understanding and addressing the educational needs of students, particularly disadvantaged youth. Justice on Both Sides makes a major contribution by demonstrating how this actually works in schools and how it can be integrated into a range of educational settings. It also emphasizes how language and labeling must be addressed in any fruitful restorative effort. Ultimately, Winn makes the case for restorative justice as a crucial answer, at least in part, to the unequal practices and opportunities in American schools.

Educational technologies continue to advance the ways in which we teach and learn. As these technologies continue to improve our communication with one another, computer-assisted foreign language learning has provided a more efficient way of communication between different languages. Computer-Assisted Foreign Language Teaching and Learning: Technological Advances highlights new research and an original framework that brings together foreign language teaching, experiments and testing practices that utilize the most recent and widely used e-learning resources. This comprehensive collection of research will offer linguistic scholars, language teachers, students, and policymakers a better understanding of the importance and influence of e-learning in second language acquisition.

Learning Objects for Instruction shows how practical models of learning objects solutions are being applied in education, organizations, industry, and the military. It includes diverse strategies used across these groups to apply learning objects -- from the use of firmly-grounded theoretical contexts to practical tool-based solutions. The reader will find a thorough history, solid models and real-world practices for using learning objects for instruction in a variety of settings. Greater numbers of organizations are expected to embrace the use of objects for instruction as issues of standardization continue to be worked out.